One Era To Another: The Telephone

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The modern version of the telephone has proven a significant change over the years from what it was at one point. What allows us to communicate with the world at any hour; minute and second of the day only exhibits how significant the invention has been for individuals. It is one of the most used pieces of electronics in the world today. Over time research has not only led to different versions of the phone, but to the developments of different tones, caller id’s, dialing, call tracing and allowing a person to listen to music while on hold.

Alexander Graham Bell was born in March of 1847 in Edinburgh to a family whose life revolved around sound, speech and communication (Stern and Gwathmey 1). It was at the beginning of the second decade of the rule of Queen Victoria and Britain was entering an age of industrial expansion, with science on the rise. Bell at a young age proved to be quite the gentlemen, his training in etiquette and public speaking only proved to serve him well throughout life. It was during a visit to the London workshop of Sir Charles Wheatstone, he discovered the scientist’s invention of the speaking machine that fascinated him (Stern and Gwathmey 2). Curious and ambitious he set out and took a position as a professor of music and elocution, the study and art of speaking clear at a boarding school. Shortly thereafter tragedy struck in the Bell family and fearing further loss the family relocated to Brantford, Ontario in 1870. Bell spent a short time in Canada and quickly found his love of life in Boston. Bell began teaching deaf children and it was here he met Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Little did Bell know these two men would play a prominent role in the patent of the telephone and directio...

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...phone service.

Here we sit in the 21st century and look at the one instrument that once brought people together, and has now spawned an industry that keeps them apart. Ultimately the telephone led in a new era, in which it has changed the way we talk to people and access information. Having a telephone allows families to stay in contact, business’s to advertise and one of the largest contributions is how it has brought on the ability to call during emergencies. Bell once wrote in 1878: "I believe in the future wires will unite the head offices of telephone companies in different cities, and a man in one part of the country may communicate by word of mouth with another in a distant place." (Marples, thehistoryof) From the telephone's earliest days and little did one know, it is safe to say Bell understood his invention's vast potential and what it would be today.

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